Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 307, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1912 — Goats Used as Fire Preventers. [ARTICLE]

Goats Used as Fire Preventers.

California forest fire fighters have hit on a practical idea to prevent the Bpread of conflagrations. In their primeval forests when a fire has once started it is liable to devastate enormous tracts of country, and so the fire fighters make huge clearings—or breaks, as they are locally termed — cn the possible line of fires. These breaks, which are fifty feet wide or so, according to the height of the forests, are, however, rapidly filled with new vegetation, and so to keep It from destroying the usefulness of the fire breaks, thousands of goats are being pastured free of charge by the government in order to keep down the growth of weeds and brush. Goats will perform this service while picking up a living, thus saving the forest service much money every year, which would otherwise go to gangs of men armed with Jhoes and other weed exterminators. Such small growths are a serious menace in case of forest fires, as during the dry season they will carry the flames right across the barrier designed to check them, and then no one knows what will happen.